santacruisestoo

Do you usually take all your kids on vacation? It's really no different to taking them to a resort or even to the beach and out to dinner. Of course I only have 2 😁, but I am one of 6 myself.

 

How much freedom you give your kids is really up to you (I wouldn't allow my 13 year old to have the freedom that the PP suggest for a 10 year old but she's not the best decision maker). But they will definitely enjoy the kids clubs, and if you pick a larger ship that has the kids water play areas, they can enjoy that too. If the excursions seem overwhelming with all 4 kids, don't go on any. We only did one on our last cruise, the ship was really what we went for.

 

The thing about a cruise is that it's extremely flexible and you can make it what you want it to be. If you want a week of great family time, you can do that. You want a break with your SO but want your kids to still have a great time, you can do that. You can eat all casual meals, have fun dressing up for formal dinners, see shows, not see shows, take a bunch of excursions, take none, you have options and so long as you have the right attitude, you will have a great time!

Honestly this would be our first true vacation, my career hasn't allowed for much before now. I will look into the kids clubs and see what we can work out, our 10y are not the best listeners at all, and they seem to cause trouble just to see how people would react sometimes.

You might want to do some more investigation. It may cost less to spread the six people out into 2-3 cabins, rather than trying to fit them all into one. In some high capacity seasons (spring break, summer, NYE, etc), it is possible for the 3rd, 4th, etc persons to cost as much as the 1st and 2nd in a cabin. Also, think about all 6 people in a small area all trying to get ready for the day or dinner at the same time with one bathroom.

I will look into this, is cruising with younger children hard? we will have 2 10 year olds, a 6 year old, and a 3 year old, a little worried that it might be more stress than just staying at home.

I want to thank each and everyone of you for commenting on this and helping shed some light for me. Our plans have changed as the only person we would trust with our kids for that long backed out so we will now be cruising with them. I believe we will have to stray from carnival due to there being 6 and from what I can find on their site while trying to book, they only allow 5 per room. Might also have to change the dates due to needing to save up some more for it.

Hello, apologizing in advance as most of this has probably been answered before.

My wife and I are looking to depart around April of 2018. We are looking at Carnival due to the affordability. We are finding conflicting answers on most of our searches due to the nature of them being opinionated answers. Would anyone here be willing to assist with this list of questions and provide some much needed insight from past experiences to help us out? Here is a list of our questions or advice requests:

- Is April a good time of year to go to the eastern Caribbean or Bahamas? we will be sailing out of either Florida or South Carolina. Also is April a good time to avoid to many children? We do not mind children as we have four of our own, just trying to take a vacation for us.

- Are suites worth the money to upgrade over a balcony? We are really interested in going for a suite because they look nice, but is it really worth it?

- Should we buy the carnival drink package? I keep seeing really mixed reviews on it, we plan on having 3-10 drinks each a day.

- Are there meetings with people taking the cruise before hand so that we can get to know a few of the people we will be sailing with before debarkation?

- Are the gyms normally good quality? We do HIT most of the time, and it can require a lot of space, or should we switch to doing cardio machines while one the cruise?

- Should we expect rude people? We have read many horror stories of terrible staff members, crew members, and just outright rude people being on the cruise, is this common or is it something that happens infrequently but stands out to people who let it ruin their cruise?

- Are the early embarking packages worth the price?

- Lastly, Travel agent or no? the one I have talked to locally did not seem to have many answers for my questions and it has kind of made me a bit leery of their services.

Thanks for taking your time to read this, hopefully, after our cruise, we can answer questions like this for other people.